This has been an interesting debate. I'm still not sure why none of the posters who claim that Irving is a superior player to Rondo, or think that Rondo can't be the best player on a contending team, refuse to take into consideration the way that Rondo has led this team deep into the playoffs over the course of the past four seasons.
Because it's quite obvious that Pierce, Garnett, and Allen lead this team deep into the playoffs, and now that they're not able to anymore, Rondo can't even lead the team to a .500 record.
Rondo wasn't the best player on any of those contenting teams. He's the best player on the team now, and we're observing the results first-hand.
This.
Paul and KG led our title run.
Paul, Ray, and Rondo in '09.
Paul and Rondo in '10.
The Big 4 were all ok in '11.
KG and Rondo last year.
As you can see, Rondo has never been the focal point of a playoff run. He's always needed one or more of the vets to take on a load.
This year, I have concerns that we are relying too much on Pierce and KG.
First of all he's claiming that the big three and not Rondo led the playoff runs, so you're disagreeing with the post you're agreeing with when you claim it was, for instance, Rondo and KG and not the big 3 in 2012. Secondly, how many players lead teams to deep playoff runs when nobody else on the team takes on a load? Certainly not players like PP, KG, RA, KD, Shaq, Kobe, Wade or Dirk. LeBron maybe?
All me to clarify:
Of all our playoff runs, we haven't had a single player be the main reason we got to where we were. When I hear posters say, "Rondo led us deep into the playoffs," I find that to be absurd. It takes more than one guy for this team to succeed. By that I mean, it takes more than one player to perform well consistently in the playoffs. The list I made above is pretty accurate, to me.
Look, I get that Rondo plays a key part, but I'd be lying if I said, "Rondo's the main reason we made those runs." That's selling the Big 3 VERY short.
So when I say I agree with kozlodev I mean I agree that Rondo wasn't the focal point of our recent playoff success. Rather, it was a mixture of Rondo and the vets. And like I said, we are relying on Pierce and KG WAY too much this year.